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GE Appliances makes refrigerators inside Building 5 at Louisville's Appliance Park manufacturing campus, July 19, 2021. Chris Otts / WDRB
GE Appliance Park in Louisville, Ky. Photo courtesy: Haier
GE Appliances makes refrigerators inside Building 5 at Louisville's Appliance Park manufacturing campus, July 19, 2021. Chris Otts / WDRB
GE Appliances makes refrigerators inside Building 5 at Louisville's Appliance Park manufacturing campus, July 19, 2021. Chris Otts / WDRB
GE Appliances makes refrigerators inside Building 5 at Louisville's Appliance Park manufacturing campus, July 19, 2021. Chris Otts / WDRB
GE Appliances makes refrigerators inside Building 5 at Louisville's Appliance Park manufacturing campus, July 19, 2021. Chris Otts / WDRB
GE Appliances makes refrigerators inside Building 5 at Louisville's Appliance Park manufacturing campus, July 19, 2021. Chris Otts / WDRB
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- More jobs and a major investment are coming to GE Appliance Park in Louisville
In a release, GE Appliances, a Haier company, said it plans to add more than 1,000 full-time jobs and invest $450 million over the next two years. The company said it will continue to upgrade Appliance Park, which is one Louisville's largest employers.
The plans call for increasing production of clothes washers, ramping up refrigerator production and introducing new refrigerator-freezer models. The company also wants to add a new line to accommodate the company’s kitchen cleaning business. It also will provide new equipment to support the company's Plastics Injection Molding Center of Excellence.
"GE Appliances continues to bring manufacturing back to the United States, creating jobs and economic growth," said president and CEO for GE Appliances, Kevin Nolan, in the release. "We want zero distance between us and the millions of families we serve with our products across America."
GE Appliance Park in Louisville, Ky. Photo courtesy: Haier
"As GE Appliances grows, Kentucky and our residents stand to benefit. This substantial investment will better position the company for the years ahead and will create quality job opportunities for Kentuckians," said Gov. Andy Beshear in a statement.
GE Appliances invested more than $1.3 billion in its U.S. operations over the past five years and created more than 3,000 jobs, with the majority in Kentucky. It builds washers, dryers, dishwashers and refrigerators at Appliance Park, which began production in 1953. The vast Louisville operation employed about 20,000 by the late 1970s but the workforce shrank to about 4,000 during the Great Recession.
The 750 acre Louisville campus is headquarters for GE Appliances, which employs more than 7,100 people full time at Appliance Park and a nearby call center.
GE Appliances also has manufacturing plants in South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. GE Appliances, a part of General Electric for decades, was purchased in 2016 by the China-based Haier company.
The announcement puts the Bluegrass State on an economic development winning streak, coming close on the heels of plans for a multi-billion-dollar investment by Ford and its battery partner, SK Innovation of South Korea, to build twin battery plants at Glendale, Kentucky, to help power the automaker's next generation of electric vehicles.
Copyright 2021 WDRB Media. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All Rights Reserved.